Today's liturgy takes up chapter fourteen of John's Gospel, which is full of challenging themes.

To Philip's question: «Show us the Father» (Jn 14:8-9) Jesus responds by asking for faith in the profound unity of the Son with the Father, and vice versa; at least by the very works that amply attest to it.

In the Franciscan Sources, the Poverello translates this cry into real life, for he was not afraid as a son to make himself impure by frequenting the cultural and existential peripheries.

For the Poor Man of Assisi, the disciple's question to Jesus finds its most exhaustive answer by contemplating his Presence in the disinherited and discarded by society.

In the forgotten and marginalised, there the Father was shown, and the Son with Him.

In fact, the Sources highlight all this in Francis' meagre experience.

"Then, loving every form of humility, he went out to the lepers, staying with them and serving them all with great care. 

He washed their feet, bandaged sores, removed the rot from sores and cleansed them of purulence.

He also kissed, driven by admirable devotion, their festering wounds, he who would soon become the Good Samaritan of the Gospel" (FF 1045).

The Minim saw and embraced the Face of God in the Epiphany of the lepers!

Give us Lord your Holy Spirit to recover each one's journey in the fullness of being without boundaries. Amen!

«Believe me: I in the Father and the Father in me. If not, believe by works themselves» (Jn 14:11)

Saturday 4th wk. in Easter A.C  (Jn 14:7-14)